


Night Conceals All

by darthaline



Series: Night Conceals All [1]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Hades is tired, Hades/Persephone (Hades Video Game) - Freeform, Multi, Nyx/Persephone (Hades Video Game) - Freeform, Reminiscing, Written pre-v1.0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23202532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthaline/pseuds/darthaline
Summary: Nyx slides a parchment across the table.“Here. We might be able to reopen the admin chamber, and move in all the contracts from the storage there.”
Relationships: Hades & Nyx (Hades Video Game)
Series: Night Conceals All [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669255
Kudos: 44





	Night Conceals All

**Author's Note:**

> Minor spoilers for the Nighty Night game update.

River Styx never really slows. There are always shades arriving, coming and going, wanting this and that. However tonight, perhaps, for the first time in months the unrelenting flow calms to what seems almost normal, and the procession of the shades seems just a little thinner before the giant table in the middle of the hall.

Hades knows better than anyone that such an occasion, with just a little push could mean a short rest, perhaps even an hour or two to sleep. In the days before the long winter, and before the blasted Ares aimed his sword at the mortal realm there were times Hades used to organize the admin chamber himself, bringing much needed order to the endless shelves of contracts. Now the constant influx of the newly dead hardly lets him leave his throne.

A dark figure appears to his left. The shade next in line seems to make itself even more transparent in its fear.

A tired realization crosses Hades’ mind.  _ They fear her more than myself, because she’s the Night Incarnate, and I’m just another paper pusher to them. _

“Hades, I need your approval on the upcoming changes to this house,” Nyx announces.

“Another round of renovations?” he frowns. ”I just approved one a week ago.”

“That was two months ago,” she slides a parchment across the table. “Here. We might be able to reopen the admin chamber, and move in all the contracts from the storage there.”

It was bizarre to think that one kind of toil could be more relaxing than the other, and yet some part of him yearns for the neatly organized shelves and alphabetically ordered files. And yet, it’s hard not to remember the boy’s last stint in the admin chamber, the chaos he brought upon it. If Hades himself wasn’t present at his birth, he’d suspected the brat spawned from the Chaos itself.

Nyx lists all the required adjustments to the space, and the toll it would take to stabilize the bounds of the House. She did in fact spawn from the Chaos, but there was a certain calm to her movements, a surprising clarity and order, intertwined with the subtle scent of magnolias.

Her presence was always complicated. Between the two of them they shared the key responsibilities, but where she seemed to have been able manage hers with grace and dignity, Hades’ own work always trailed behind. Nyx somehow considered herself indebted to him, for taking over the census and administrative duties, but a lot of the time her comments about it seemed more like thinly veiled jabs at his incompetence.

He nods and hums in approval at the schematic, as Nyx’s delicate fingers carefully trace the outline of the renovated chamber. Persephone’s hands were never like that. For all her half divine heritage, she always seemed the most alive in this wretched place, her bright red blood running through her veins, much like the waters of river Styx. The first time he saw them, together in the yard, hands joined together intimately, his coarse ancient heart ached.

From the very start he’s been playing catch up with her, with her sharp wicked mind. Where his very being yearned to put down order and set rules, she only ever strove to break them. She was not Chaos, but a deliberate destruction, disregard for all and any rules or demands.

He takes his pen and charts the outlines of the areas and the exits, the precise manner of the organization, the inner workings optimized to perfection. Some might call him old fashioned.

Persephone once put Nyx’s hand in his, and then kissed each one of their knuckles. Nyx looked as lost as he felt himself, and that brought him a tiny sliver of comfort. Since then, many years have passed. His Olympian relatives had not the gentle persuasion of his ex-wife, but only disgusting gossip.There was no place or time for subtle movements, and then the boy’s mere existence demanded blunt dirty lies.

The boy’s words today were as awkward in their delivery as his first time training with a sword.

_ “Did you and Mother... how to put this? Any brothers or sisters I should know about? _

It took him a few moments to process the audacity, but also to realize that the boy isn’t talking about Nyx. For so many years ‘you and mother’ had an entirely different meaning, which he himself encouraged.

It brings out long forgotten memories, of the way his ex-wife kissed her way down Nyx’s neck and chest, pulling loose her elaborately done hair, as she looked him dead in the eye, across their bedroom.

He’s pulled from his thoughts by Nyx’s fingers brushing against his beard, not quite reaching his chin, but a gesture clear in it’s intent.

“Hades, darling,” Nyx rolls the second word with a quiet precision, “my eyes are up here.”

The blood rushes to his face in mortification. His stomach sinks. It took many years for him to build their relationship, off of those bits and pieces and awkward glances the hurricane of Persepone left them in. He’s not Zeus, he surely can control himself. The last thing he needs is for that jar of worms his son opened to spill into what semblance of order he managed to shape it. 

“I,...” he stutters through it, not much better than his son this morning, “My apologies. I meant no offense and I promise it won’t happen again.”

Nyx tilts her head a little, looking at him.

“I accept your apology, there is no harm done. But I would prefer that you don’t make the promises you can not keep.”

He takes a deep breath and nods.

“Thank you, Nyx.”

“I assume this plan is to your satisfaction,” she gestures at the piece of paper between them.

“Yes, it is, thank you,” he repeats like an idiot.

“In that case, I suggest you take a break,” she looks over her shoulder at the queue. “I will make sure they have accommodations in the lounge until morning.”

She pointedly doesn’t offer to take over the admin, and he hopes that means she still trusts him to do his job, just not until he has had some sleep, so that’s the offer he will take.


End file.
